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MAITC Pilot A34 – MAITC Pilot A: Empowering Caregivers of Individuals with Cognitive Impairment to Make Safe Nonprescription Drug Decisions

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Each year, over 240 million people in the United States rely on over-the-counter (OTC) drugs to manage their health. Unlike prescription medications, which involve healthcare provider guidance, OTC consumers are left to independently assess the appropriateness of these drugs. This self-guided process poses significant risks, particularly for informal caregivers of individuals with cognitive impairments. These caregivers, often older adults themselves, make complex health decisions without sufficient guidance or information. This project aims to mitigate these risks by developing Aidara, an Al-powered digital health system for safer medication decision-making. Aidara will use large language models (LLMs) to extract and simplify critical drug information from existing drug databases. It will present this information through multimodal outputs, including text, natural language question-and-answer via audio, and visualizations. To support users with varying levels of literacy and technological abilities, Aidara will incorporate multimodal input methods, enabling caregivers to provide health information using natural language (speech), touch, or image inputs.

This project will follow a multi-phase approach incorporating co-design of the drug inquiry module with caregivers (Aim 1), system development and validation of the drug recommendation module (Aim 2), and a user study to evaluate Aidara (Aim 3). This process ensures that Aidara is designed, developed, and refined based on real-world needs and preferences. By making drug information more personalized and actionable, this project seeks to improve caregiver decision-making, reduce adverse drug events, and promote safer self-management of OTC medications for individuals with cognitive impairments and those who support them.

Duration:
10/01/2025 - 05/31/2026

Principal Investigator(s):

Partnering Organization(s):
University of Massachusetts Amherst

Research Funder:

Total Award Amount:
$228,807.00

Research Areas: